Kiwi Player Knocks Out Aussie Second Seed

North Harbour badminton player Jessica Jonggowisastro caused the initial upset of the Oceania Badminton Championships at Stadium Southland in Invercargill with a first round win over second seed, Leisha Cooper of Australia in three games.

Jonggowisastro, who had taken most of 2009 off competition badminton to concentrate on her studies defeated Cooper 15-21 21-15 21-11 in 44 minutes to open up the bottom half of the women’s singles draw. She will face Southland’s Anna Rankin in the second round on Thursday with an opportunity to make at least the semifinals now looking likely for the winner of that clash. Rankin had earlier defeated Australia’s Melinda Sun in straight games.

New Zealand’s Michelle Chan is the women’s top seed, however Chia Chi Huang an ex Taiwanese Olympian and now Australian national coach is widely regarded as the player to watch out for in the top section of the draw.

Meanwhile the men’s top seed Joe Wu put paid to teenager Josh Curry from Manawatu while one of Australia’s best, Jeff Tho accounted for New Caledonia’s Glenn Gowett in straight games.

The Oceana Championships and junior championships continue this week with the finals on Saturday and valuable Commonwealth Games ranking points on offer.

Results (New Zealand unless noted).

Men’s singles first round

Luke Charlesworth bt Sebastien Bedrune(Tahiti) 21-10 21-14, Florian Ferrer(New Caledonia) bt Howard Shih-Kai Chou 21-19 17-21 21-10

Evan Lee bt Leo Cucuel(Tahiti) 21-16 21-16.

Men’s singles second round;

(1)Joe Wu bt Josh Curry 21-14 21-16, Jeff Tho(Australia) bt Glenn Gowet(New Caledonia) 21-9 21-9, Michael Fowke bt Matthew Ng 21-6 21-23 21-7.

Women’s singles first round;

Erica Pong(Australia) bt Johanna Kou(New Caledonia) 21-12 21-8, Melissa Yin bt Buddhima Fernando(Australia) 18-21 22-20 21-16, Anna Rankin bt Melinda Sun(Australia) 21-7 21-14, Leanne Choo(Australia) bt Cecile Kaddour(New Caledonia) 21-2 21-5, Jessica Jonggowisastro bt (2)Leisha Cooper(Australia) 15-21 21-15 21-11,